With high-tech wood pellets and efficient burners, brothers push forest biomass as energy good for Oregon

The brothers, both well over 6 feet tall and fit, grew up in Massachusetts. They are the oldest of four siblings, and spent their youth mowing lawns, flipping burgers and selling berries.

"I had the nice bicycle because I worked to get it," Chris Sharron says.

Chris -- who insists he's the handsome one of the pair and Francis is the brains -- wasn't interested in college, he just wanted to work. Francis went to the Coast Guard Academy and studied engineering. Their father transferred to a job in Oregon, and eventually the brothers followed. Both were working for an equipment manufacturer in Portland when they met a St. Helens couple who dried alder sawdust and sold it to people who smoked meats.

In 1985, the couple offered to sell, and the Sharron brothers jumped. They sold much of what they had to raise the down payment, borrowed seed money from their father, and set to work.

They were rooming together at the time; Francis continued at the manufacturing company and labored at West Oregon Wood Products evenings and weekends. Chris tended bar at night and spent days driving a battered truck to pick up sawdust at mills.

They retrieved and repaired a pellet mill buried under blackberry canes and switched from chips to pellets. Within a few years they increased sales from $50,000 to $300,000 annually.

"We had big eyes and were going to make millions," Francis says.

The pair started a burner system manufacturing company as well, and Francis branched off to run it, renaming it SolaGen.

Their dreams of making millions faded, and the brothers are content to work in an industry they believe is sustainable, provides good jobs and supports other American manufacturers.

"I know he feels the same way," Francis Sharron says. "One can have fun, be responsible, succeed and pull others with us as best we can."